THE country’s factory output plunged to its lowest in nearly 20 years, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the country’s Volume of Production Index (VoPI) shrank 59.8 percent in April, the largest contraction since 2001.
The PSA said the Value of Production Index for Manufacturing sector also plummeted to 61.4 percent in April 2020, also the highest recorded annual decrease in VaPI since 2001.
“The preliminary results of the April 2020 Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries or MISSI show that manufacturing, both volume and value indices, fell significantly. All manufacturing subsectors posted double-digit negative growth rates in April 2020 given the imposition of community quarantines. As we shift from ECQ to GCQ, we will be seeing improvements in the succeeding months,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said in an online briefing on Friday.
Data showed industry groups with the higher VoPI contraction were led by leather products, the factory output of which contracted 99 percent.
This was followed by footwear and wearing apparel, where VoPI contracted 97.8 percent, as well as furniture and fixtures which contracted 91.7 percent.
It can be noted that all industry groups posted contractions. The industry with the least drop in factory output was food manufacturing at 46.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the decline in VaPI was due to seven of the 20 industry groups registering more than 85-percent contractions.
These were led by leather products which contracted 98.6 percent followed by footwear and wearing apparel with a contraction of 98 percent and furniture and fixtures at 90 percent.
Other industries included fabricated metal products which contracted 89.9 percent; non-metallic mineral products, 87.7 percent; rubber and plastic products, 87.7 percent; and tobacco products, 86.8 percent.
The MISSI data also showed that the average capacity utilization rate for total manufacturing stood at 70 percent.
PSA said this was lower than the average capacity utilization rate of 77.9 percent recorded in March 2020.
Data showed 23.9 percent of the establishments operated between 90 percent and 100 percent while 43.1 percent operated between 70 percent and 89 percent. Over a third or 33 percent of firms operated below 70 percent capacity.
In terms of industry group, the highest average capacity utilization was recorded by footwear and wearing apparel at 87.4 percent and textiles, 87.2 percent.
The industries with the lowest average capacity utilization rate are leather products at zero, followed by printing at 27.4 percent and beverages at 30.2 percent.
The MISSI is a report that monitors the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector.